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Suddenly you realize that the thumps are your head striking something on each side as it lolls back and forth in time to the unstable rocking of the ground. There is intermittent creaking and the sound of water slapping against something.

*Thump*

Your eyelids crack open. Light filters dimly through some small cracks above you. There are large shadowy objects on either side of you. You flex your muscles, and manage to stop the thumpings... but also realize that you have been pounced upon by a headache, one that seems determined to investigate the contents of your skull. You also realize that you must be on a boat. You seem to be pinned, with heavy somethings resting on top of your body. Some of them have uncomfortable edges.

The wan light through the cracks is occasionally occluded, sometimes shortly, sometimes for a long time. After some painful mental plodding, you realize that the short intervals are someone crossing overhead, and the long intervals are likely caused by cloud cover. The air is not only hot, but rather stifling.

Waking up

Rilde figures it must be an unusually hot day; if she's on a boat, she must have gotten drunk after a long day of caring for the wounded and passed out--hence the headache (it's happened before ). Probably people had to take a boat in order to go after the orcs and took her aboard. She's still a little confused as to what she's doing pinned; probably something went wrong once they set sail.

Loudly and grumpily (noticing the pounding headache): "Will someone get me out from under this junk before I smash something? Fiera, you just out-wrestled me a day or two ago, so wrestle this junk off of me before I smash something. Kord's wrath! I have orcs to slay!"

If no one answers, she irritably tries to push her way out of this stuff:

One of the passing shadows stops abruptly at your loud pronouncement. After a brief pause, there is the sound of slapping feet, and the shadow moves off swiftly. After much too much time passes where nothing happens, you heave against the weights on your body. They shift and partially move.

Some more shoving yeilds unexpected results. Above you there is the sound of many feet slapping the deck, around you there is the sound of rope creaking and finally breaking, and you tip over sliding painfully down with a cascade of hard objects, crates and boxes and the like. This time you wind up on top, and are now completely free of the pinning objects. There is a general outcry of deep voices overhead, and the feet move. There comes some muffled sounds and shouting from above and over from where you lay.

Looking around you see that you appear to be in a hold. Where you are standing is at the base of one pile of crates which are no longer lashed together. You can see the remnants of netting clinging to some of the crates. There is some sound from over to one side, and abruptly a hatch is thrown back with a crash. Bright sunlight streams down in a pillar, occluded by someone sticking their head down into the hold you are in. From your point of view they are upside down, and their features are completely obscured by the light shining down behind them. A voice booms out from the head, and after a momentary pause, you hear in Common, "Come out into the light where we can see you!"

Rilde's actions meeting the strangers

Rilde moves a little bit farther from the hatch, trying to put something between her and the opening, to obscure the sounds of the spellcasting she's about to do. If she can, she casts Eagle's Splendor on herself, hoping it will aid in any negotiations she must do. Then she says, "All right, I'm coming out", and steps out into the light to greet the people on the ship.

You step into the light. The contrast is literally blinding. Your eyes tear up a bit. It is very hard to see anything beyond profiles. From above the voice speaks in surprise, "A stowaway?!" You hear the indistinct murmur of voices. The head looks off to the side and the voice barks, "Gai-ye! I thought I told you to check and secure the hold before we left!" Faintly you hear, "But I did! And by the Mercy of the Four Sages, there was none present when I checked!"
The head growls a bit. "Well then, come look and tell me what you see!" Presently, another head appears in the light. "It looks like a human?" A hand reaches out and cuffs the second head. "Of course she's a human! They aren't so different that you can't tell the gender, Gai-ye. Try not to sound like a fool." The first head looks down at you. "A moment, Lady. We shall have you up." A rope ladder with wooden rungs is unrolled down into the hold.

You climb out into the sunlight, assisted by a firm calloused handgrip from the first head. You blink a few times, adjusting to the warm brightness. The breeze is firm, cool, and fresh... but lacking in salt. You glance around at the crew people. At first you think your eyes are deceiving you, but what you see does not change.

Goblinoids!

Uniformly tall, dark, and handsome goblinoids? As if some divine sculptor took the various races and stretched them upwards and molded them out of dark clay into some Olympian ideal of goblinoids.

The first one speaks to you. "I am San-Ji, and it is my blessing to be Helmsman of the good ship Wave's Foam." He pauses and seems almost embarressed. "We are devoute followers of the Enlightened Sages, and the penalties for stowaways are clear, but I am lothe to enact them as written, for you are clearly a Lady. And the treatment of a Lady is also clearly outlined. A moment to confer, if you please, Lady." He turns and speaks in a low murmur to several of the other crew.

After a few moments, he turns back and says, "Lady, will you accept a symbolic binding of your wrists, and an escort to a cabin in which we shall hold you while we confer at greater length and detail as to what we must do? Your comfort will, of course, be seen to, as much as it is in our power to do so."

Rilde's response

"Very well, but if you offer violence against me you'll find I give as good as I get. Go ahead." Warily, she offers her wrists. She pays attention to the cords, though--if they seem more than symbolic she may resist more.

The proffered binding proves to be a ribbon of silk, a bright red in color. San-ji holds it before you, flexing it in demonstration before gently wrapping it around your wrists before you and securing it in a bowed knot. The silk is not tight, but is warm from his touch.

San-ji, Gai-ye, and two other crew members surround you in a loose diamond. Together they escort you to the rear of the ship where there is a raised area apparently housing quarters. Inside they show you a small room with a chest at one end, and some kind of netting hanging down on the wall above, swaying with the motion of the ship. A narrow window lets in some light. One of the crew folds down a cleverly hidden seat from the wall, using a couple of fingers in a little depression. You note that there are a number of similar finger-nooks in the same wall.

After seeing you settled, the crew bow to you in turn. San-ji approaches and partly unties the silk, reworking it so that you have a length of ribbon between your wrists. He speaks softly, "We shall trust you not to remove the silk, and this should allow you some freedom of movement. Food shall be brought shortly." He bows again and steps outside the compartment. The door is shut and there is the sound of something sliding into place.

The small cabin has a few hangings on the wall, secured at all four corners. They are abstract works of some kind, with complex whorls and patterns. It seems that this is someone's personal quarters.